George Roop out, Daniel Pineda meets Antonio Carvalho at UFC 149

Featherweight George Roop (12-9-1 MMA, 2-5 UFC) has suffered a training injury and has been forced out of his fight against vs. Antonio Carvalho (13-5 MMA, 0-1 UFC). Stepping in for Roop will be Daniel Pineda (17-8 MMA, 2-1 UFC).

UFC officials on Tuesday announced the change for the UFC 149 pay-per-view, which is set for July 21 at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The card will be the UFC’s first visit to the city, which is the third largest in Canada.

UFC 149 features an interim bantamweight title fight between former WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber and Renan Barao in the main event. Current champ Dominick Cruz was shelved for the foreseeable future with an ACL injury suffered while training for his rematch with Faber.

Pineda is just a month removed from the first loss of his UFC career, a unanimous decision setback against former WEC featherweight champ Mike Brown at UFC 146 in Las Vegas. That loss snapped a seven-fight win streak for the Texan, including a pair of first-round submission wins in the UFC against Pat Schilling and Mackens Semerzier.

Stepping in for Roop next month will give Pineda four fights in the UFC just a little more than halfway through the calendar year. His rear-naked choke win over Schilling took place in January. Just six weeks later, he got Semerzier with a triangle-armbar in Australia.

Carvalho signed with the UFC in 2011 after three straight wins in his native Canada. He was set to make his debut at UFC 134 in Rio de Janeiro, but was forced out with an injury. In January, he debuted at UFC 142 against Felipe Arantes – also in Rio – but dropped a unanimous decision.

Roop, in his second UFC stint after a three-fight run in the WEC, was looking to get back on track after back-to-back losses. A cast member on “The Ultimate Fighter 8,” Roop dropped a controversial split decision to Hatsu Hioki at UFC 137, then was knocked out by Cub Swanson at UFC on FOX 2 this past January.

UFC 149 was expected to have a headlining featherweight title fight between Jose Aldo and Erik Koch, but Aldo was forced out with an injury. A middleweight bout between Michael Bisping and Tim Boetsch was moved to the card from UFC 148 in Las Vegas, but Bisping recently underwent surgery, taking him off the card. Thiago Silva was knocked out of his fight with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, and Rua was subsequently pulled from the card to meet Brandon Vera at UFC on FOX 4. Yoshihiro Aikyama pulled out of a fight with Thiago Alves and was replaced by Siyar Bahadurzada, but then Alves was taken out with surgery and replaced by Chris Clements. The Pineda-for-Roop switch is just the latest change to hit the card.

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